{"product_id":"clam-down-a-metamorphosis-hardcover","title":"Clam Down: A Metamorphosis - Hardcover","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eAnelise Chen\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eIn this wondrously unusual memoir, a woman retreats into her shell in the aftermath of her divorce, and must choose between the pleasures and the perils of a closed-up life--a transformation fable from an acclaimed 5 Under 35 National Book Foundation honoree. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\"A marvel and a delight . . . This is a book that will stay with me forever.\"--Leslie Jamison, author of \u003ci\u003eSplinters\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWe've all heard the story about waking up as a cockroach--but what if a crisis turned you into a clam? After the dissolution of her marriage, a writer is transformed into a \"clam\" via typo after her mother keeps texting her to \"clam down.\" The funny if unhelpful command forces her to ask what it means to \"clam down\"--to retreat, hide, close up, and stay silent. Idiomatically, we are said to \"clam up\" when we can't speak, and to \"come out of our shell\" when we reemerge, transformed. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn order to understand her path, the clam digs into examples of others who have embraced lives of reclusiveness and extremity. Finally, she confronts her own \"clam genealogy\" to interview her dad, who disappeared for a decade to write a mysterious accounting software called Shell Computing. By excavating his past to better understand his decisions, she learns not only how to forgive him but also how to move on from her own wounds of abandonment and insecurity. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eUsing a genre-defying structure and written in novelistic prose that draws from art, literature, and natural history, Anelise Chen unfolds a complex story of interspecies connectedness, in which humans learn lessons of adaptation and survival from their mollusk kin. While it makes sense in certain situations to retreat behind fortified walls, the choice to do so also exacts a price. What is the price of building up walls? How can one take them back down when they are no longer necessary?\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAnelise Chen\u003c\/b\u003e is the author of the novel \u003ci\u003eSo Many Olympic Exertions, \u003c\/i\u003e a finalist for the VCU Cabell First Novelist Award. She is a 5 Under 35 Honoree from the National Book Foundation. Chen is currently an assistant professor of creative writing at Columbia University. She lives in New Haven, Connecticut, with her family.\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 368\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 1.22 x 8.51 x 5.86 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eIllustrated:\u003c\/strong\u003e Yes\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e June 03, 2025\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51987379618093,"sku":"9781984801845","price":28.19,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0938\/3185\/6429\/files\/plu_8WXmni9781984801845.webp?v=1776178368","url":"https:\/\/ishookbooks.com\/products\/clam-down-a-metamorphosis-hardcover","provider":"iShook Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}